NEWS 2003: Jun02 Far Exceeding the Latest Innovations in CIS, Harris Launches NorthStar

NASHVILLE, TN., June 2, 2003 - Harris Computer Systems (Harris), a leading provider in Customer Information Systems (CIS), billing, and financial management solutions for municipal utilities and local governments, today announced the launch of NorthStar v6.0, a next generation CIS. Continuing with a tradition of providing innovative software solutions, NorthStar will build upon the market-leading functionality of the current Harris CIS solution by leveraging the strength and technology of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

"Harris has always been a leader in CIS functionality," said Jeff Bender, President of Harris. "With NorthStar we combine functional leadership with technical leadership – a very powerful combination. This combination provides a CIS solution that can deliver superior customer service, operational efficiency and a measurable return on investment for our customers in addition to being flexible enough to adapt to the inevitable changes of tomorrow."

NorthStar benefits from the multi-tier design: multi-platform support for operating system and database, enhanced usability, and state-of-the-art user controls while retaining the robust capabilities and proven reliability of its predecessor, Pubs 5.2. NorthStar also inherits the enterprise class infrastructure of Java application server, providing the scalability and reliability for any-sized utility.

Harris is targeting general release in Q1 2004 and has been actively demonstrating NorthStar to customers during targeted focus groups. "The NorthStar user interface will definitely save us significant time and allow us to provide a higher level of customer service," said Annie Hickey, Utility Billing/Meter Services Manager, City of Daytona Beach, FL. "The CIS and billing information is more readily available and the drill-down capability takes you to the information you need regardless of where you start."

Scheduled for customer trials in Q3 2003, NorthStar has been internally tested on leading application servers such as BEA Weblogic and IBM WebSphere. It has also been tested on open standard application servers such as JBOSS. The result will provide a spectrum of choices for existing and new customers to choose the technology that is right for their IT strategy, resources, and budget.

One of the hallmarks of the J2EE architecture is that it provides operating system and database independence. "Harris' adoption of the J2EE architecture is progressive and will provide the City of Glendale with long-term flexibility in our IT infrastructure. The scalability NorthStar inherits as a J2EE application combined with the tools for application integration provides tremendous value to Glendale. We are really excited about the impact the NorthStar upgrade will make to our operation," said Craig Herman, CIS Project Manager for the City of Glendale, CA.

NorthStar was also designed to fully integrate with Harris’ entire CIS product suite. Internet and mobile extensions of our existing customer management module CARE are fully preserved and enhanced. eCARE, a fully interactive utility customer portal allowing electronic bill presentment and payment, will leverage the J2EE architecture to provide the required scalability to manage simultaneous transactions as adoption rates for customer self service continue to rise. mCARE, our mobile service order management application, will also benefit from the standardization of J2EE client interaction allowing our customers to have the freedom to choose the best mobile or wireless device for their workforce.

Harris Report Writer, the enhanced reporting and query application is fully functional in NorthStar. Report Writer leverages the tools of Impromptu by Cognos, the leader in Business Intelligence (BI) software. Report Writer provides tools to easily locate the data that drives business decisions while Impromptu prepares the data for further analysis, prints reports, and facilitates publishing to company intranets and customer portals.

Platform independence: Full customer choice from an operating system and database perspective, allowing customers to select the vendors that provide the best match to their IT strategy, resources and budget.
Enhanced usability and streamlined processes: NorthStar has been designed to improve operational efficiencies with the CIS and billing functions. NorthStar allows full customization per user, workgroup, and process to facilitate workflow. Optimization of form design, layout, and procedure have been refined and tailored based on feedback from the broad Harris customer base.
J2EE and Java Application Server: NorthStar easily interfaces with Web Services and XML to standardize third-party interfaces and support B2B functions. NorthStar provides support for multiple user interfaces, rapid web-enablement of additional processes, and access from mobile devices.

State of the art GUI: NorthStar GUI controls facilitate superior user navigation, system maintenance, and automated processing. The Java Swing user interface provides NorthStar with a fully-functional client that remains super thin to ensure optimum performance and minimum client hardware requirements.

Harris undertook the development of NorthStar in early 2002 to fulfill on our commitment to providing product innovation to our customers. The J2EE architecture was adopted due to its ability to work within the full spectrum of hardware and operating systems that our customers and the market in general have adopted. J2EE has also emerged as the leading standard for transactional intensive applications such as the CIS. To learn more about the benefits J2EE provides to CIS, please review our white paper by visiting www.harriscomputer.com.

About Harris
Harris is a leading provider of and utility Customer Information Systems (CIS), billing, and financial management software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to all levels of local government as well as public power and water markets throughout North America. Harris' focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers over time. For further information on Harris Computer Systems, please visit our website at www.harriscomputer.com.